Any primary teachers willing to give me an idea of the level this writing might be please?

[bettystearoom]

I know that you can't tell a child's level only off one piece of work but could anyone give me an idea of what sort of level you think this might be...it's the first chunk of a story my dd has written (the rest has a middle and end but it's a bit too long to type out). I am curious as to what level she is working at. I have typed it exactly as it was written, spelling mistakes, little errors and all. I am curious because in some ways she is using lots of level 3 stuff but in others - the very occasional capital D where it should be lower case for example, she is not.

Here goes:

Doggy woke up on a sunny morning then he brushed his teath for 2mins exactly or sould I say on the dot! Next Doggy Dressed easerly and his mum got his Pedergree Chum ready and after doggy got his...HUH! His school bag had diserpeared. Where was it? "Woof Mummy come here" said Doggy my bag has diserpeared.

---

The middle is another chunk that size and the end similar, same sort of punctuation, spelling and tone.

I'd appreciate any views if possible.

Isn't there something about writing of reasonable legnth as well? Once again, the excerpt can't tell us. And it has to be across genres to be an overall level-my year 6 ds is fantastic at story writing, but has had to work a bit at his factual writing to be sure of getting his target level in next week's SATS.

Okay I see what you mean. It was probably a bad idea to ask the original question because it is too short and even if I typed the whole story in that won't be other types of writing.

It's very interesting gaining a better understanding of how it all works.

Level 2 with elements of level 3. Technically quite good but immature subject matter and style. Lots of good elements there to work on. Would need to see at least 2 other bits of work to level properly. Do you need to stress about this? Just encourage her to keep writing stories to share with you and make little suggestions to improve on next time while letting her know you are proud of her progress. Please don't become a playground parent that says "well of course my child workes at a level...."

I say 2a, but seriously, you are getting yourself all worked up over something that DOESN'T MATTER. A 2a is good a 3c is great. She's obviously doing well and it's year 2 sats not gcses!!

Point taken!
I was more interested than worked up I promise

Quite frankly, I find it ridiculuous that you are questioning a professional who has trained for 4 years. Unless you are a qualified teacher, and I'm assuming you are not as you would know that 2a is slightly above average for a Year 2 child, then I wouldn't undermine your child's teacher in such a way. You CANNOT level that writing - it is only a few lines long. You need a range of genres and pieces.
Now you wouldn't go to a doctor and challenge their diagnosis of your sickness, would you?
If I were you, I would trust that your child's teacher is doing a good job, rather than challenging their expertise.

I'd agree with someone earlier - on that excerpt, a 2B.
It doesn't make total sense, there are no adjectives or ambitious language and has speech-like vocabulary. I agree that the punctuation shows elements of L3.

Looking at Fallen's points from the TES forum, I would say not a 3 yet (but not far off).

An a year 2 primary teacher and would give 2b with some elements of 2a based on the excerpt provided!

I would say this is a level 2a, but there's not enough evidence there to award a 3.

Why are you so critical of the teacher's target setting of your daugher; I would say she/he is fairly spot on?

Definitely not a level 3 I'm afraid but she seems on the right lines & when she gets more maturity it will help. If you look you will see that speech marks, question marks etc have been missed out so even on the spelling & punctuation she is missing a level3.

I certainly wouldn't give it a level 3...but then I wouldn't make judgements about a child's attainment over the year on the basis of one piece of writing, either.

clairey21 - a bit harsh to say that questioning the teacher would be ridiculous. I have found that there is often a difference in professionals as to whether work is 'secure at' or 'working towards'. I have found that teachers, when they have moved year groups, for example, often have stricter/laxer interpretations of the same guidelines.
We had LA training on this recently and we were quite amazed at how our interpretations varied.
And yes - I have questioned Doctors too. I've found that the more experienced professionals don't mind being questioned at all, as they have the knowledge and experience to back up what they say.

There is a huge difference in level 2 and level 3 and even quite a difference in a 2A and a 3C. I would award this piece as an independent assessed piece a 2A. The actual topic itself I would expect from a 2C/B writer (I think someone above mentioned a more mature topic for a 3?). There is some major punctuation missing - no speech marks etc. The actual style itself shows promise.

Infant schools are desperate for a high % of pupils reaching a level 3 - if the teacher is not sure she can award it she has no evidence over the year of your DD reaching that level - sorry.

At our school, it would be marked as a 2B if the rest of her work was similar.

From a secondary point of view definitely less than a level 3 as many of the sentences do not make grammatical sense and aren't punctuated correctly. However, lovely vocab and imagination and that's what should be encouraged at her age and dare i say it........don't panic about if she is 2a, 3b, 4c, 1a. As long as she can read and write 'well' when she moves up to secondary then don't sweat the small stuff. I'd hate to have written a story at that age and then for a load of people to discuss what 'level' it was.

I would say 2c/b. The spelling mistakes are phonetically correct. I am not a primary teacher but have seen lots of examples of work. I agree though hard to assess from one piece of work.

Its discussions like these that make me feel a bit sad about children's schooling these days. Its all the "do this to get a higher level" type targets I also think are sad for children. And sats.

I'm not sure I'm ready for my daughter to start school :(

very interesting.

having read through all the level descriptions and app grids, I see that dd does do some level 3 stuff, at home and is beginning to use speech marks, exclamation marks, hyphens... yet has had to be bribed to remember her full stops and finger spaces at school

her writing, though technically quite proficient is still quite immature in content. it is about consistency over a period of time. she has improved massively over the last half term but i doubt that she has produced enough writing to show evidence of her current school ability. she is quite likely to stay at this level for a while though as she goes in fits and starts. hopefully, her next spurrt with writing will be at a coinvenient time for collecting evidence before the end of the next school year!

it does seem like they need to jump through lots of hoops to reach each level, and missing out things like full stops, stops teachers assessing at a higher level when otherr more technical things are being attempted. I keep telling myself it will all come together with time!

full stops drive me insane, make them big enough to see without a micrroscope but not to big to look like a big scribble and remember the bloody things

dd is good at capital letters but the key board is not!